A missed opportunity

Streamlining Louisiana's bloated government without crippling the state's future is a daunting challenge, especially with huge deficits expected over the next three years. The task calls for visionary leadership from state officials and for an urgent, serious and open discussion on how best to avoid fiscal ruin without relying on blind, jagged cuts that eviscerate vital services. Louisianians had hoped for such a far-reaching discussion in the fiscal session that ended Thursday.

They were disappointed -- and that made the session a missed opportunity.

Instead of focusing on fiscal and government reforms, Gov. Bobby Jindal and lawmakers got distracted by divisive social items. They failed to produce a plan for long-term fiscal stability that does not imperil higher education and other economic engines. As a result, Louisiana's $28 billion budget is essentially a one-year fiscal Band-Aid.

It could have been worse. Gov. Jindal's original budget included such draconian cuts to universities and colleges that four former governors were compelled to publicly rebuke him. The four predecessors lecturing the incumbent governor was perhaps the session's most dramatic and humbling episode. It pushed Gov. Jindal to soften the blow on higher education.

There was some progress toward a long-term fiscal fix. The governor and lawmakers created separate commissions to study ways to streamline state government and higher education. The commissions and the Jindal administration must work diligently to present alternatives and forge public consensus for reforms.

But lawmakers avoided structural changes. Treasurer John Kennedy unsuccessfully lobbied to cut 15,000 of the state's 105,000 jobs over the next three years, mostly through attrition. That would have saved hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

Many lawmakers started the session somewhere between denial and delirium, filing a staggering number of tax breaks and proposals that, if approved, would have widened the deficit abyss. Even Gov. Jindal lost perspective, backing an unwise plan to periodically raise the homestead exemption to adjust for inflation. Sobered by the fiscal numbers, and the prospect of chopping education and health care, lawmakers abandoned most of those revenue-killing ideas.

Unfortunately, House members and Gov. Jindal refused to go along with the Senate and postpone the scheduled repeal of the Stelly tax plan to use the money for higher education. That would have kept income taxes at current levels and used recurrent revenue to pay for recurrent expenses. That's preferable fiscal policy to tapping the rainy day fund and other one-time revenues, as lawmakers did.

There were positive steps in other areas, though. Lawmakers approved the agreement Gov. Jindal reached with the Saints to keep the team in New Orleans and revitalize several buildings near the Superdome. That is an important economic development initiative for our region, and metro residents are thankful for the support from the governor and lawmakers. Gov. Jindal also included important infrastructure work for our area in the state's capital budget. And lawmakers toughened seat belt and DWI laws, measures that will make highways safer.

Yet Louisiana retreated significantly in other areas. Lawmakers watered down standards for high school education and for accountability testing in eighth grade. They also passed a bill that while purporting to bring transparency to the governor's office still allows him to keep most records secret. The measure will also make secret for six months budget recommendations that are currently public. That's less transparency, not more.

It was also disappointing that in a session supposed to focus on fiscal matters, lawmakers and the governor spent so much time and political capital pushing for unnecessary and divisive proposals. Those included measures to repeal the motorcycle helmet law, allow guns on college campuses and make it harder to issue revised birth certificates for kids adopted by gay or unmarried couples. Public pressure helped defeat all those bills.

Overall, the session's results fell well below the expectations Louisianians had after the reforms achieved during last year's legislative sessions. We're in a serious time, a time to publicly evaluate the state's priorities while protecting its future. Louisianians expect Gov. Jindal and legislators to launch that discussion now, so the next session does not go by without major reforms.